Note: I just saw this in Commentary Magazine online. It is too good to pass. I have to share that with you. And just for funzies, I bolded out the most blatant lies/misrepresentations. Have fun! The Saker
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Is Russia Ready for Another Land Grab in Ukraine?
It’s time for a new strategy.by Noah Rothman
Two weeks ago, the world reacted with palpable shock to the news that Russia had unilaterally closed naval traffic through the Kerch Strait separating the Black Sea from the Sea of Azov, but it’s a mystery as to why. Moscow’s brazen violation of Ukraine’s maritime navigation rights and its arrest of sailors is only its latest egregious attack on international norms. Such attacks have ranged from the invasion and annexation of sovereign territory in Europe to the active support for the starvation of Syrian civilians. This last offense against responsible statecraft was comparatively modest, but it was no less dangerous. If Russia’s provocation was a calculated effort designed to gauge how the world would react to another transgression against Ukrainian sovereignty, Moscow got a rather definitive answer: it wouldn’t. Russia has taken its cues, and it may be preparing for something far worse.
Andrey Illarionov, a former economic advisor to Vladimir Putin who has become a fierce critic of the Russian regime in his current role as a Cato Institute scholar, told the Kiev Post this week that time is not on Russia’s side and the Kremlin knows it. Occupied Crimea is running out of water. The peninsula relies primarily on a Soviet-era canal to channel fresh water from mainland Ukraine and, between periodic draughts and the Ukrainian government’s efforts to choke off resources to the illegally occupied territory, Illarionov believes it’s only a matter of time before the canal runs dry. He thinks that Putin is resolved to prevent that kind of a crisis by any means necessary.
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Oh well, the good thing is that these folks are showing their true face along with their mind boggling level of dishonesty. This will all eventually end like it always does, with a big and very predictable backlash. Then they will whine and sob about how nobody loves them (for some mysterious reason).
The Saker
Occupied Crimea?
It’s occupied for 250 years by Russians. A bit longer than Occupied America, occupied by waves of Europeans that overwhelmed the Natives and killed off most of them.
Commentary is a Khazarian journal of Khazarian wet dreams and bile.
Russophobia.
The only positive thing I can say about this garbage is it made me laugh multiple times in a 2 minute span. A few moments ago I didn’t know commentary magazine existed, I still wish I didn’t know commentary magazine exists. How do people even gather up the courage to say such massive lies.
Same here.
It made me laugh out loud.
They are well paid to do so.
Being a pro-neocon liar is a very good way to gain money and power.
It just happens I was recently reading another writer who touched on this …..
“If you’ve ever wondered what motivates all those blue-checkmarked corporate media journalists to spend so much time on Twitter defending the powerful and attacking the disempowered, this is your answer. They spend their own free time smearing Jill Stein, calling Jeremy Corbyn an antisemite, attacking Julian Assange, supporting longtime neoconservative war agendas against Russia, Syria and Iran and uncritically reporting intelligence agency assertions as fact not because there’s a CIA officer hovering over their shoulder at all times telling them exactly what to tweet, but because they’re auditioning for a job. They’re creating a public record of their establishment loyalism which current and future employers will look at when weighing hiring and promotion decisions, which is why both journalism schools and journalism employers now encourage journalists to cultivate a social media presence to “build their brand”, i.e. their public resume.”
https://caitlinjohnstone.com/2018/12/10/how-the-plutocratic-media-keeps-its-staff-aligned-with-establishment-agendas/
Commentary is a zionazi-gay propaganda outfit. The ukrainian coup was a zionazi op.
“Andrey Illarionov, a former economic advisor to Vladimir Putin…”
Why does Russia still allow Empire-sponsored NGOs to operate in its territory? Are Mr. Illarionov’s friends still working in Russia?
“Occupied Crimea is running out of water. The peninsula relies primarily on a Soviet-era canal to channel fresh water from mainland Ukraine….”
I recall reading a couple years ago when Ukraine did indeed turn off all gas, water, and electrical utilities running to Crimea. I thought that Crimea and also the Donbass region are now connected to the Russian power grid.
Saker: When will Russia stop all gas deliveries through Ukraine? When will the Russian central bank stop holding dollar reserves? When will Russia completely stop using the dollar in international trade?
Below is another propaganda website. I am more interested in the current maps than in the “news reports.” According to the LiveUA website, the Donbass and Luhansk regions look so small. Do these areas continue to lose territory?
https://liveuamap.com/
Another example is Syria. The map indicates that the American zone has grown considerably over the past several months. Is this accurate?
https://syria.liveuamap.com/
An article about Syria, US controlled area and the Russian Military message.
https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2018-12-11/us-occupies-territory-syria-size-croatia-russia-slams-illegal-stronghold-evil
Al Tanf will be were a confrontation is very likely soon.
Only US air power can protect the US base there. And the Russian and Syrian missile defenses can cripple the aircraft the US would deploy.
“Oh, you had soldiers right in the middle of that terrorist stronghold? American soldiers? Well, how did that come about? Were they captured by the terrorists and being held for ransom? You should have told us”.
“I recall reading a couple years ago when Ukraine did indeed turn off all gas, water, and electrical utilities running to Crimea”.
And why didn’t the US government and all its little pals raise the roof at the UN over that bundle of war crimes? Oh yes, war crimes don’t matter when the US government’s favourites commit them against unpeople.
The Kerch strait bridge that the Ukrainians want to blow up is also the power connection to the Russian grid.
The one conditions the Germans appear to be insisting on as a part of the approval of NordStream2 is the continuation of the gas transit through Ukraine. Merkel has made this point several times, and apparently very recently discussed this with Putin.
I see that Merkel did speak with Putin. As Merkel is on her way out, Russia needs to delay making any response. If I were Putin, I would give orders to shut off the gas to Ukraine in 2019. Can anyone translate this?
https://twitter.com/KFM936/status/1072211255077847040
Russia does not supply natural gas to Ukraine. The gas entering Ukraine is meant for Eastern European markets, from which Ukraine acquires transit fees.
https://www.oxfordenergy.org/wpcms/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/Ukrainian-gas-transit-Still-vital-for-Russian-gas-supplies-to-Europe-as-other-routes-reach-full-capacity-Comment.pdf
Ukraine receives Russian gas from Slovenia, either via reverse flows or swaps. Some gas also comes from Poland, while Poland at the same time imports Qatar LNG at several times the cost of Russian natural gas. Ukraine also received Russian natural gas meant for Belarus at reduced cost which was resold to Ukraine until Gasprom stopped this illegal gas flow.
To be honest Ukraine still produces a majority of its domestic natural gas use. The catch is that this use is down as many people of Ukraine cannot afford the IMF mandated gas rate increases.
Well, the whole, or almost the whole, point of Nordstream (and also Turkstream), is to bypass Ukraine and its endless problems for gas delivery to Europe.
So, Putin has to figure out a way to bypass Merkel on this.
Maybe he can promise to continue gas deliveries via the Ukraine and then just let the pipeline die a natural death through lack of maintainance. Or, dial down the volume of deliveries. Or suggest to the Americans that the Ukrainians would now prefer to buy their gas from the USA, via a liquefecation terminal in . . .Poland . . .
The Ukrainians hate the Russians so much—why, oh why, do they want Russian gas????? Why don’t their American handlers suggest to them that they should buy American?
Katherine
Hi Katherine,
“The Ukrainians” as you call them do not exist. Most citizens of Ukraine do not hate Russians, at all. My wife happens to be one of them.
The problem is that the current government of Ukraine is anti Russian. This CIA chosen governement consists of oligarchs with most often at least two nationalities (UA/USA or UA/Israel), of (neo-)nazis, and of extreme nationalists with a weird idea of Ukrainian (in fact Russian) history.
Many NGO’s and the media are on these extremists side and thus a part of the population has been indoctrinated long enough to be, more or les, anti Russian. A large majority of the pro-Russian Ukrainians keep quiet for obvious reasons…, unfortunately.
I remember when after 9-11 Americans used to ask “Why do they hate us?” Of course, those of us on the left knew very well why Americans were hated, as we had been complaining and campaigning against the acts that generated the hate. And of course those on the right felt philosophically that being hated was the proper situation and that if a nation isn’t hated then its just because the liberal do-gooders have had too much of a say restricting proper right-wing, militaristic policies that should generate the hate. But, the middle and the people who don’t really pay much attention, which is the majority of Americans, were actually asking the question as to ‘why do they hate us?’
Americans do not ask that question any more. A part of that has been the explosion of rightist thought that has dominated the nation since the Dubya/Cheney coup that seized power in 2001. This is typified by the rightist Trump administration which is actively trying to generate hatred of America in all corners of the world.
But as to the rest of Americans, the one thing that is true is that they no longer need ask the question ‘why do they hate us?’
All the liars are paid. Actually its incredible how most people are ready to sell their own soul for money.
T
“Actually its incredible how most people are ready to sell their own soul for money.”
That is what western capitalism is built upon.
So what is the truth about lack of fresh water in crimea, what are they doing to solve this anyone know?
Here is another article with the same speculation, that the Russians could sieze Kiev. From the Institute for the Study of War, another obviously biased source.
http://iswresearch.blogspot.com/2018/12/russia-sees-opportunity-in-europes.html
I first learned who Noah Rothman is when he appeared on Tucker Carlson, probably spring of 2018 or fall of 2017. I don’t remember the topic. There aren’t words for the revulsion I experienced over the smug way he told his lies. He has the most punchable face on the planet. Worse than that Kirchick guy. God.